Mini Biking Vacation: Fruita, CO

Since the weather has been so amazing, we decided to take a little mini vacation last weekend.  We treked across the state of Colorado to the very western side to Grand Junction and Fruita, just for a night.  Now is the time to go biking out there before it gets too hot, and we had a blast!

We got up Saturday morning and hit the road.

We stopped and had a picnic lunch by the Colorado River, and of course, Michael had to do a little fishing.

We got into Grand Junction/Fruita around 1:30pm.  We picked up some necessities at Walmart (sunscreen, oops) and then headed right to the trailhead for the Book Cliffs to go mountain biking.

And oh did we mountain bike.  We rode hard for a solid two hours!  We were so wiped out, and ready to relax and enjoy the evening.

Post biking beverage and relaxing at the trailhead

We went to downtown Grand Junction for dinner, and ended up at a restaurant called Bin 707, we had heard they had really good burgers.  Michael played on the artwork in downtown.

Couples photo!! And after our deliciously fattening and also delicious meal, we split the chocolate pretzel pie. It was like death by rich chocolate on a pretzel crust. SOOO good.

In our hotel room, we keep bikes.  I mean, who doesn't?

Sunday we planned into our biking weekend to bike the Colorado National Monument.  It was a gorgeous ride, only marred by the winds that kicked up on our way back.  Way strong, and we were so tired.

Ready to begin our second biking adventure!

Neither of us had ever been to the National Monument, so we really didn't know what to expect. We highly recommend doing it! Even driving it!  The rock formations are amazing!

If you do what we did, it is a 40-46 mile ride there and back.  The national monument road streches from Grand Junction to Fruita, so you could do one way, but then someone would need to pick you up. 

Tunnel vision on a bike is crazy.

I'll stop the commentary and just let you all look at the pictures.

Pretty, right?  Behind me in this photo is Independence Rock.  Now this is not the Independence Rock that is famous on the Oregon Trail, but they called it the same name for some reason. While we were here, you could see people on top of the rock.  Yes, real, live people.  It is an extreme rock climbing destination. 

I love having a hobby that Michael and I can do together!

Michael had to take a stretch break and climb on some of the rocks.  Typical.

And thats it!  We drove back to Denver after that ride.  It took us about 3 hours.  I have been so tired and sore all week, but it was it was so worth it for all the fun we had! I have a feeling we are going to be doing even more of these little weekend biking vacations.